Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Youth Services: Finance

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to provide adequate funding for the youth sector (a) workforce and (b) infrastructure needed to deliver the National Youth Guarantee.

Stuart Andrew: The Government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities, and the workforce that delivers them, play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people.While local authorities are responsible for delivering youth provision, the Government has worked closely with local authorities to update statutory guidance to support this delivery. The Government additionally provides significant funding to support youth services, with over £1.1 billion provided to the youth sector from DCMS In England between 2015 and 2021.Furthermore, over this Spending Review Period, DCMS is investing over £500 million in youth services to deliver the National Youth Guarantee, a government commitment that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. This includes a significant number of interventions. For example, the Youth Investment Fund is delivering grants to build, renovate and expand youth centres, and the Million Hours Fund has created more than a million hours of youth activities in antisocial behaviour hotspots.To support the workforce, DCMS funds the National Youth Agency (NYA) to set professional standards, qualifications and a curriculum for youth work. In addition, over the past three years we have worked with the NYA to provide bursaries to help more than 2000 youth workers access training and qualifications. DCMS also provides funding to the Regional Youth Work Units to ensure a consistent minimum level of regional leadership, as well as funding to create new Local Youth Partnerships and support existing ones to encourage and build local coordination.

British Youth Council: UK Youth Parliament

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the closure of the British Youth Council on the Youth Parliament.

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the permanent closure of the British Youth Council, if she will take steps to ensure that unspent grant funding is re-allocated to support other youth organisations.

Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps to re-deploy staff at the British Youth Council after its permanent closure.

Stuart Andrew: I was sorry to learn about the closure of the British Youth Council and want to express gratitude for its work over the years. Government is committed to the delivery of the UK Youth Parliament and intends to use funding allocated to BYC in 2024/25 to support the programme. We are working alongside previous UKYP delivery partners from English regions and the devolved administrations, to understand the implications of BYCs closure for programme delivery. We have been working at pace to identify a suitable organisation which can hold overall grant management responsibility for the UKYP 24/25. A preferred candidate has been identified and we are currently undertaking final due diligence checks and negotiating terms and I will update the house as soon as next steps have been formalised.

Department for Work and Pensions

Disability: East Midlands

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number and proportion of the working age population who are disabled in (a) the East Midlands and (b) Lincolnshire.

Mims Davies: The information requested is given in the table below. Number and percentage of disabled people aged 16 to 64, 2022/2023 Geographical areaNumber of working age disabled peoplePercentage of working age people who are disabledEast Midlands720,20024.5%Lincolnshire129,30029.7% Source – table LMS008 Numbers are rounded to the nearest hundred and percentages to one decimal placeNumbers shown are central estimates and subject to sampling variation. The precision of these estimates will be limited by sample size.Annual Population Survey data has not been reweighted to incorporate the latest estimates of the size and composition of the UK population.

Brain: Injuries

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions his Department has had with the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council on classification as an industrial injury of neurodegenerative conditions linked to repeated head impacts.

Mims Davies: The Department is advised by the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC), an independent scientific body, on changes to the list of occupational diseases for which Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) can be paid. IIAC is currently considering whether there is a link between certain neurodegenerative diseases and professional sportspeople. IIAC has reviewed over 100 studies relating to ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and will need to give more consideration to the evidence before it can make a decision. IIAC will also likely consult experts (neurologists) in this field and will then publish its findings when the investigation is complete. It would be premature to speculate on how the Council’s investigation will progress or whether there is enough evidence of a link between certain neurodegenerative diseases and professional sportspeople to meet the threshold for a new ‘prescribed disease’ to be recommended by IIAC for the purpose of IIDB entitlement. If recommendations are made by IIAC on this matter, they will be carefully considered by the Department.

Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit: Mining

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 1 March 2024 to Question 15320 on Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit: Mining, for what reason not all applicants for Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefits receive compensation.

Mims Davies: In order to be entitled to an award of Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB), claimants must meet all the eligibility criteria set out in the relevant legislation. Claims may be disallowed prior to any medical assessment where certain entitlement criteria are not met (e.g. conditions around employed earner’s employment are not met, or the claimant does not satisfy the occupational criteria associated with the disease they are claiming for). Claims for IIDB may also be disallowed following a medical assessment if the entitlement criteria are not met, for example, if it is established at assessment that the customer does not have one of the diseases set out in the relevant legislation. There is not normally entitlement to a payable award of IIDB where disablement is assessed at less than 14%, with exceptions for some prescribed diseases as set out in legislation. In these cases, it is accepted that the customer is suffering from the prescribed disease, but they may not be entitled to a payable award of IIDB. However, IIDB may still be payable for people who claim for more than one accident or disease and the total disablement, when the effects of all the accidents and diseases are added together, is 14% or more.

Work Capability Assessment: Parkinson's Disease

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of proposed changes to Work Capability Assessments on people with Parkinson's disease.

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will hold discussions with (a) the hon. Member for North Tyneside and (b) Parkinson's UK on the potential impact of the social security system on people living with Parkinson's disease.

Peter Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to review planned changes to the Work Capability Assessment to reflect the impact on people with (a) Parkinson's and (b) other long-term conditions.

Peter Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will meet with Parkinson’s UK and the hon. Member for Bootle to discuss the experience of people with Parkinson’s in the social security system.

Mims Davies: The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) assesses individuals against a set of descriptors to determine how their health condition or disability affects their ability to work. The WCA takes into account the functional effects of fluctuating and degenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s. A key principle is that the WCA considers the impact that a person’s disability or health condition has on them, not the condition itself. Claimants with the most severe health conditions and disabilities whose condition is unlikely to ever improve are no longer routinely reassessed. From 2025, we are reforming the WCA to reflect new flexibilities in the labour market and greater employment opportunities for disabled people and people with health conditions, whilst maintaining protections for those with the most significant conditions. Claimants who currently have no work-related requirements, except in some very limited circumstances, will not be reassessed or lose benefit because of these changes. When making decisions on changes to the WCA, we carefully considered over 1300 consultation responses, including from disabled people, people with health conditions, and the organisations that represent and support them. We also engaged directly with clinical experts, employer groups and disability organisations across the country. With these changes to the WCA criteria, 371,000 fewer people will be assessed as having limited capability for work and work-related activity by 2028-29 and will receive personalised support to help them move closer to employment. A further 29,000 individuals will be found fit for work by 2028-29 and will receive more intensive support to search for and secure work than would be the case under the current WCA rules. These figures are not based on specific conditions. This is because the WCA considers the impact that a person’s disability or health condition has on their ability to work, not the condition itself.The department routinely engages with a wide range of organisations that represent and support disabled people and people with health conditions, including people living with Parkinson’s disease.

Health and Safety: Coronavirus

Apsana Begum: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any (a) public and (b) private sector employer has been reported to the Health and Safety Executive for failure to abide by health and safety legislation during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Paul Maynard: The Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, employees have to themselves and to each other and certain self-employed have towards themselves and others. HSWA applies equally across all workplaces in all industry sectors and does not distinguish between either public or private sector duty-holders. As such, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would not routinely differentiate or record this information. Reports received by HSE are generally in the form of a ‘concern’. These can be in relation to any health and safety issue in the workplace and can be submitted via HSE’s online reporting portal.Between the 1st April 2020 and the 31st March 2022, this being the timeframe of the pandemic prior to HSE returning to business as usual, HSE handled over 70,000 concerns about health and safety in the workplace. However, not all of these concerns were in relation to a failure to abide by health and safety legislation, some were requests for general health and safety advice, support, and guidance. This data has been published in the HSE Annual Report 2020/21 and 2021/22 respectively and is not Covid specific.

Employment Schemes: Young People

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many starts have been recorded for the Youth Offer in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire as of 25 March 2024.

Mims Davies: The Youth Offer launched 20 September 2020 and provides support for 16–24-year-olds who are on Universal Credit to help them move into employment. It includes three elements:The Youth Employment Programme, which provides young people dedicated intensive Work Coach support in finding & applying for jobs, with additional assistance available for those who have recently begun their Universal Credit claim.Youth Hubs, which bring together in one location DWP services with local support provided by youth experts. This ensures that the needs of young people are matched to services that help them tackle barriers to employment.Youth Employability Coaches, who are focused on supporting young people furthest from the labour market overcome complex challenges so that they can move into work. As of the 1st of March 2024, there have been 1,200 starts to the Youth Offer in South Holland and The Deepings constituency, and a total of 17,420 starts in the Lincolnshire region. These figures are part of the overall 1,123,000 total starts on the Youth Offer. NotesFigures are rounded to the nearest 10.The figure for Lincolnshire is the combined figure for each of the following local authorities; Boston, East Lindsey, Lincoln, North East Lincolnshire, North Kesteven, North Lincolnshire, South Holland, South Kesteven and West Lindsey.A claimant may take part in multiple elements of the Youth Offer. They may start any element of the Youth Offer multiple times. Each of these starts is recorded as a start on the Youth Offer.

Health and Safety: Coronavirus

Apsana Begum: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive is investigating (a) public and (b) private sector employers for failure to abide by health and safety legislation during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Paul Maynard: The Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, employees have to themselves and to each other and certain self-employed have towards themselves and others. HSWA applies equally across all workplaces in all industry sectors and does not distinguish between either public or private sector duty-holders. As such, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would not routinely differentiate or record this information.

Universal Credit: Housing

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2024 to Question 19031 on Universal Credit: Housing, for what reason there are different qualifying criteria for (a) Support for Mortgage Interest and (b) support that homeowners receive in respect of service charges.

Mims Davies: Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) and help with service charges cover different costs and different eligibility criteria apply. SMI is paid at a rate that the lending industry generally accept as sufficient to avert the threat of repossession. This help is often significantly less than the homeowner’s contractual liability, although eligibility was recently extended to assist homeowners with rising interest rates. While SMI provides support at the point of need, this help is in the form of an interest-bearing loan that is recoverable from equity when the property is sold. Eligible service charges are met in full and this help is in the form of a non-recoverable benefit. Given these differences the Department see no compelling argument for aligning entitlement rules.

Health and Safety: Coronavirus

Apsana Begum: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Health and Safety Executive pursued prosecution of (a) public and (b) private sector employers for failure to abide by health and safety legislation during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Paul Maynard: The Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, employees have to themselves and to each other and certain self-employed have towards themselves and others. HSWA applies equally across all workplaces in all industry sectors and does not distinguish between either public or private sector duty-holders. As such, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) would not routinely differentiate or record this information. The prosecution data below is for the time period of the 1st April 2020 and the 31st March 2022, this being the timeframe of the pandemic prior to HSE returning to business as usual. The figures are for all prosecutions taken under health and safety legislation which were published in the HSE Annual Report 2020/21 and 2021/22 respectively and are not Covid specific. HSE pursued 206 prosecutions in 2020/21, with a 94% conviction rate, and 290 prosecutions in 2021/22, with a 96% conviction rate. A total of 496 prosecutions across the period referred to.

Children: Maintenance

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people pay the full child maintenance costs for which they are liable.

Paul Maynard: The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has a range of enforcement powers at its disposal to ensure parents meet their financial obligations to their children.These include deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts, using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving licence or UK passport or even commitment to prison.The Child Support (Enforcement) Act received Royal Assent in 2023. This creates a primary power to replace court-based liability orders with administrative orders, which should significantly speed up this key enforcement process. We have concluded a public consultation to support regulations to implement administrative liability orders. The Government published their response on 12 February 2024. Secondary legislation is now being developed, which, once implemented, will reduce the process from 22 weeks to as low as 6 weeks. This will be brought forward as soon as possible.

Social Security Benefits: Death

Apsana Begum: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Prevention of Future Deaths Reports have related to (a) universal credit and (b) other benefits in each of the last five years.

Paul Maynard: The Department has received 6 Prevention of Future Death (PFD) reports in the last five years to date. 1 report did not relate to a customer who was in receipt of benefits. The breakdown of the reports by year and the benefit claimed is provided in the table below: Number of PFD reports received in the last 5 yearsUniversal Credit (UC)Personal Independence Payment (PIP)Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and PIPNot in Receipt of Benefits2020000020211101*202200002023101020241000* This report related to Child Maintenance.

Children: Maintenance

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will take steps to ensure that information on how to challenge decisions is available through the Child Maintenance Service portal.

Paul Maynard: Significant improvements have been made to the online service ‘My Child Maintenance Case’ allowing Child Maintenance Service customers to digitally report a large range of changes that impact their case. If a customer believes the Child Maintenance Service have made the wrong decision about how much child maintenance must be paid or received, they can ask the Child Maintenance Service to look at the decision again under their mandatory reconsideration process. Information on how to request a mandatory reconsideration is included within any decision notification. Further information is also available on gov.uk. Child Maintenance Service: What child maintenance is - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) & Challenge a benefit decision (mandatory reconsideration): Eligibility - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). A dispute or a mandatory reconsideration cannot currently be reported online. However, following a decision being made, if a parent raises a linked change via My Child Maintenance Case within 32 days of the original decision, this will automatically be considered as a mandatory reconsideration request. For example, a parent raises a shared care change on My Child Maintenance Case within 32 days of a shared care decision being made, the Child Maintenance Service will look at the original decision under a mandatory reconsideration. Plans are in place to improve the information provided to child maintenance customers. This will provide a clear digital route to guide customers on how to challenge a decision through My Child Maintenance Case. These changes are being looked at in 2024/25.

State Retirement Pensions: Women

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the PHSO report on changes to women’s State Pension age, published on 21 March 2024, if he will implement its recommendations.

Paul Maynard: We are considering the Ombudsman’s report and will respond in due course.

State Pension Regulations 2015

Gavin Newlands: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to amend the State Pension Regulations 2015 to allow deferred pension entitlement accrued by individuals not (a) married and (b) in a civil partnership to be considered part of their estate upon death.

Paul Maynard: The Government has no plans to amend the State Pension Regulations 2015. These regulations make transitional provisions enabling a person in the new State Pension system to inherit a deferral payment where their deceased spouse or civil partner had deferred an old State Pension. Apart from transitional rules, it is no longer possible for a spouse or civil partner to inherit or derive State Pension entitlement from their partner, under the new State Pension system, introduced in 2016. If an individual is not married or in a civil partnership, it is possible for an arrears payment to made to the deceased's estate under Regulation 30 of the Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1987. A maximum of three months arrears of State Pension may be awarded which may include arrears of extra State Pension accrued by the deferral.

State Pension Regulations 2015

Gavin Newlands: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the provisions of the State Pension Regulations 2015 which prevent individuals from taking (a) a lump sum payment and (b) an enhanced pension on the finances of pensioners.

Paul Maynard: No such specific assessment has been made. The Government prepared an impact assessment which looked at the effect of the new State Pension reforms overall on the various types of income that pensioners receive from the state, available at: The single-tier pension: a simple foundation for saving - Impact Assessment (publishing.service.gov.uk). This included estimates on the impacts of changes to deferral policy.

AEA Group: Workplace Pensions

Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Third Report of the Work and Pensions Committee of 2023-24 on Defined benefit pension schemes, HC 144, published on 26 March 2024 and the Fifty-Seventh Report of the Committee of Public Accounts of 2022-23 on AEA Technology Pension Case, HC 1005, published on 14 June 2023, if he will publish a redress scheme for AEA Technology pension scheme members by 23 July 2024.

Paul Maynard: This is a complex issue, which spans the responsibility of several departments. My officials are in discussion with their counterparts at the Cabinet Office. As part of the government’s response to the Third Report of the Work and Pensions Committee of 2023-24 on Defined Benefit pension schemes (HC144) we will carefully consider this issue, involving other relevant departments as appropriate and respond in due course.

Workplace Pensions

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people opted out of auto-enrolment workplace pension schemes in each of the last ten years for which figures are available.

Paul Maynard: The data requested for the number of people who opted out of automatic enrolment workplace pension schemes in each of the last ten years is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs. The department makes regular publications of the data that is held, including the Workplace Pension Participation and Savings Trends, which is available on GOV.UK. This publication includes aggregated data from large private pension providers in which the proportion of new member enrolments to have opted-out of workplace pension saving stood at 11.79% in July 2023. Over the period from January 2020 to July 2023, these opt-out rates have fluctuated between a low of 7.03% and a high of 12.23%. From the same aggregated private pension provider data, the proportion of pension scheme members making an active decision to cease saving was 0.50% in July 2023.

Social Security Benefits: Fraud

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the (a) Integrated Risk and Intelligence Service, (b) Enhanced Checking Service, (c) Risk Review Team, (d) Enhanced Review Teams, (e) Universal Credit advances claims decision risk model, (f) Common Risk Engine, (g) General Matching Service, (h) Fraud Referral and Intervention Management System, (i) Targeted Case Review and (j) any other systems rely on artificial intelligence, machine learning or algorithmic processes for fraud detection.

Paul Maynard: As set out in the Department’s 2022/23 Annual Report and Accounts (page 308 to 310), DWP uses advanced analytics to tackle fraud and error. These analytics include a variety of sophisticated techniques including the use of machine learning to identify patterns in claims that could suggest fraud or error, so that these claims can be reviewed by relevant DWP teams such as the Enhanced Review Team. The final decision on benefit entitlement is made by a human caseworker. The National Audit Office confirm that DWP have governance and processes in place to monitor the bias of these models.

Social Security Benefits: Fraud

Debbie Abrahams: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any of the claim detection criteria in the targeted case review system are applied by or operated through artificial intelligence, machine learning or algorithmic processes.

Paul Maynard: As set out in the Department’s 2022/23 Annual Report and Accounts (page 308 to 310), DWP uses a range of advanced analytics to identify patterns in claims that could suggest fraud or error, so that these claims can be reviewed by relevant DWP teams including Targeted Case Review agents. The final decision on benefit entitlement is made by a human caseworker. The National Audit Office confirm that DWP have governance and processes in place to monitor the bias of these models.

Financial Assistance Scheme and Pension Protection Fund: Inflation

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of levels of inflation on the real term valuation of pensions under the (a) Financial Assistance Scheme and (b) Pension Protection Fund.

Paul Maynard: The information required to carry out such an assessment is not readily available and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs. The Secretary of State has therefore made no such assessment at this time.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Official Visits

Richard Burgon: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how many foreign officials have been granted special mission status to visit the UK in each year since 2011; and if he will list the (a) names and (b) country of origin of those officials.

David Rutley: As set out in 2013 by the former Foreign Secretary William Hague, a special mission is a 'temporary mission, representing a state, which is sent by one state to another with the consent of the latter, in order to carry out official engagements on behalf of the sending state'. Since starting to issue special mission status (SMS) certificates in 2013, the FCDO has given consent for 57 special mission status visits to the UK for the following officials and their delegations:2013Israel· Maj. Gen. (res) Amos Yadlin, Former Chief of Military Intelligence DMI; Deputy Commander of Air Force· Maj. Gen. (res) Doron Almog Senior Adviser on Beduoin Issues (cancelled)· Lt. Gen. Benjamin Gantz, Chief of Defence Staff, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF)· Dr. Yuval Steinitz, Minister of International Affairs, Strategy and Intelligence2014Egypt· Dr. Mohamed Mahmoud Abdul Nasr, Minister of Education (cancelled)· Mr Mounir Faqhry Abdel Noor, Minister for Foreign Trade and Investment· Ambassador Yasser Atef, Deputy Assistant Minister for European Affairs· Dr Sherif Mohamed Ali Hammad, Minister of Scientific Research· Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Hegazy, Chief of Staff of Egyptian Armed Forces· Mr Sameh Shoukry, Minister for Foreign Affairs· Dr Mahamoud Aboel Nasr, Minister of Education Israel· Ms Tzipi Livni, Minister for Justice· Ms Tzipi Livni, Minister for Justice Iran· Mr Ebrahim Rahimpour, Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia and Oceania2015Egypt· Dr Mahmoud Abdoul Nasr, Minister of Education· Mr Ashraf Salman, Minister of Investment· Mr Ashraf Salman, Minister of Investment· Dr Hany Kadry Demain, Minister of Finance· Prof. Dr SHerif Hammad, Minister of Scientific Research· Sheikh Dr Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, Grand Imam· Mr Sameh Hassan Shoukry, Foreign Minister· Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Hegazy, Chief of Defence Staff· Mr Tarek Kabil, Minister of Trade and Industry· Mj. Gen. Mohamed Elkeshky, Assistant to the Minister of Defence for International Relations· Mr Khaled Fawzy, Chief of General Intelligence· Dr Ahmed Emad Eldin Rady, Minister for Health· President Sisi's Advance Delegation· President Sisi's Delegation· Major General Mohammad Farag Elshahat, Head of Military Intelligence Israel· Ms Tzipi Livni, Member of the Israeli Knessett· Delegation of Former Security Officials· Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister· Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Chief of Military Intelligence Qatar· H.E, Dr. Ali bin Fetais Almarri, Attorney General2016Egypt· Mr Ashraf El Sheihy, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research· Mr Saad Elgyoushi, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research· Mr Sameh Hassan Shoukry, Foreign Minister Qatar· H.E, Dr. Ali bin Fetais Almarri, Attorney General. Israel· Ms Tzipi Livni, Member of the Israeli Knessett· Maj. Gen. (ret) Amos Yadlin, Director, Institute for National Security Studies (INSS)· Mr Shaul Mofaz, Former CDS and Minister of Defence· Mr Avi Dichter, Member of the Israeli Knessett Rwanda· Mr James Kararebe, Minister of Defence2017Egypt· Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Ibrahum Mahmoud Hegazy, Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces.· Eng. Sherif Ismail, Prime Minister· Mr Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs2018Saudi Arabia· Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia2019Egypt· Mr Mahmoud Sharawy, Minister of Local Development· Mr Kamel El-Wazer, Minister of Transport2020Egypt· Mr Abdel Fattah Alsisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt· Mr Kamel El-Wazer, Minister of Transport Saudi Arabia· Colonal Turki Al Maliki, Coalition Spokesman and Joint Head of Delegation2021Egypt· Mr Kamel El-Wazer, Minister of Transport2022Egypt· Mr Kamel El-Wazer, Minister of Transport· Mr Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs Saudi Arabia· Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. (cancelled)2024Israel· Mr Benny Gantz, Minister of the State of Israel

Oil: Imports

Neil Coyle: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what estimate he has made of the number of companies importing oil from the Rosneft owned Vadinar refinery in India.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan: The UK regularly raises Russia's actions with India including at Foreign Secretary level, most recently on 16th February, and is working with the Government of India to accelerate India's transition to green renewable energy to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels. Tackling sanctions circumvention remains a key priority for the UK and G7, and we are committed to working with international partners to address circumvention risks. We must incentivise all countries to shift away from dependency on Russian goods and services by demonstrating that Russia is not a reliable partner. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero publishes National level data on the origin of oil cargoes to the UK, but does not break this down by originating refinery. In 2023 imports of petroleum products from India to the UK totalled 2.0 million tonnes.

Climate Change: International Cooperation

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he plans to take steps to encourage companies that extract fossil fuels to contribute to the loss and damage fund at COP 29.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK is committed to establishing an efficient and effective Fund for Loss and Damage which delivers demonstrable outcomes for those particularly vulnerable to climate change. The UK's pledge of up to £40 million for the new Fund will help achieve this. Given the scale of finance required to respond to climate impacts, it is essential that the Fund encourages and deploys a wide variety of sources of funding, including from public, private and innovative sources. As a Board member, the UK will work with others to broaden the scale, scope and sources of financing for loss and damage.

Summit for Democracy

Liam Byrne: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what outcomes were agreed at the third Summit for Democracy held in Seoul on 18 to 20 March.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Participants at the Third Summit for Democracy agreed the importance of harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging digital technologies to uphold democratic values and institutions, noting their potential to open new channels for participation and enhance transparency, openness and accountability. Participants also agreed the importance of strengthening laws and institutions to mitigate risks associated with emerging technologies that could undermine democratic values, including threats such as infringements on privacy and the spread of misinformation and disinformation. Hosts the Republic of Korea, along with key partner governments, confirmed their intention to continue supporting the Platform for Engagement of Civil Society and their work on the Summit process.

Uganda: Civil Liberties

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what discussions he has had with his Ugandan counterpart on the (a) arrests and (b) treatment of people campaigning against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: Through our High Commission in Kampala, we have previously raised concerns around detentions of climate protesters in Uganda; both I and the High Commission regularly engage with the Ugandan Government on human rights, both bilaterally and with likeminded countries.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Microplastics: Water Treatment

Sir Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of wastewater treatment plants in removing microplastics from waste water.

Robbie Moore: A recent UK water industry project investigated the quantities and types of microplastics entering a range of wastewater treatment works. The Department reviewed the findings from the work and agrees with the conclusion that conventional wastewater treatment is effective in removing microplastics from wastewater. The evidenced showed treatment processes can take out an average of 99% of microplastics (by-number of microplastics) and 99.5% by-mass from wastewater arriving at the works.

Fly-tipping: Rural Areas

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to help tackle fly tipping in rural areas.

Robbie Moore: We appreciate the difficulty that fly-tipping poses to landowners. We are working with stakeholders, such as the National Farmers Union and local authorities, through the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group to share good practice, including how to prevent fly-tipping on private land.As part of the government’s commitment to unleash rural opportunity, we are currently funding a post within the new National Rural Crime Unit to explore how the police’s role in tacking fly-tipping can be optimised, with a focus on rural areas.Across two rounds of our fly-tipping grant scheme, we have awarded nearly £1.2m to help more than 30 councils tackle fly-tipping at known hot-spots, including in rural areas, such as by installing CCTV. Round three is currently in progress and should see a further £1 million handed out in the spring to help even more councils tackle fly-tipping.

Farmers: Lincolnshire

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the number of payments made to farmers by the Rural Payments Agency in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) South Holland and the Deepings constituency in each of the last five years.

Sir Mark Spencer: The RPA has made over 21,094 payments in Lincolnshire and 2,205 in the South Holland and the Deepings constituency, over the last 5 years across the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), Countryside Stewardship (CS), Environmental Stewardship (ES) schemes and Grants. To Note: Both tables include the number claims paid in the scheme year for BPS, CS Revenue, CS Capital, ES, SFI and Grants. This is not at unique customer level and therefore a customer may have received a payment from multiple schemes – which answers the “number of payments to customers” ask.LincolnshireSouth Holland and the DeepingsScheme YearTotalScheme YearTotalVolumeVolume20193,929201942320203,969202042120214,221202144220224,565202246320234,4102023456

Plastics: Waste

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade to reduce exports of plastic waste.

Robbie Moore: We want to deal with more of our plastic waste at home. The Government’s collection and packaging reforms will help to stimulate investment in the UK reprocessing infrastructure so we can reduce our dependency on plastic waste exports. In addition, the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto made a commitment to ban the export of plastic waste to countries which are not members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Plastics: Waste

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to include the commitment to reduce plastic waste exports in his negotiating priorities for the Global Plastics Treaty.

Robbie Moore: The UK is a member of the High ambition coalition to end plastic pollution and has taken an ambitious stance in negotiations, supporting a treaty that will address the full life cycle of plastic including restraining and reducing the production and consumption of plastic to sustainable levels, addressing plastic design and encouraging more recycling and re-use of plastic. Controls on plastic waste exports are already established under the Basel Convention. The UK is an active Party to the Basel Convention and the UK supported the tightening of controls on plastic waste exports adopted by parties in 2019.

Plastics: Incinerators

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to publish data on the amount of plastic burnt in incinerators each year.

Robbie Moore: We publish estimated tonnages of residual waste plastics processed by Energy from Waste facilities as part of our Experimental Statistics on the carbon impact of waste from households managed by local authorities in England.

Plastics: Incinerators

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to reduce levels of incineration of plastic.

Robbie Moore: We are clear that we want to see less residual waste being generated in the first instance. To this end, in addition to our Collection and Packaging Reforms, we have set a statutory target under The Environmental Targets (Residual Waste) (England) Regulations 2023 to ensure that the total mass of residual waste (excluding major mineral wastes) for 2042 does not exceed 287 kg per person. This is the equivalent of a 50% reduction from 2019 levels. This is supported by an interim, non-statutory target set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan to ensure that residual municipal plastic waste for 2027 does not exceed 42 kg per person. We are also working closely with DESNZ on the expansion of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to cover fossil carbon emissions from waste incineration and EfW from 2028. This will provide an incentive for the development and uptake of decarbonisation technologies or waste management practices to reduce emissions from incineration of residual waste plastic.

Incinerators

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to introduce a moratorium on new incineration capacity in the UK.

Robbie Moore: Defra officials are currently assessing planned Energy from Waste capacity against expected future residual waste arisings so we can understand what future capacity may be required following implementation of key commitments in the Resources and Waste Strategy. This further assessment of residual waste treatment capacity needs will be published in due course. We are clear that Government does not support overcapacity of residual waste treatment infrastructure at either a local or national level.

Housing: Sewers

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 April 2023 to Question 181086 on Housing: Sewers, on what date the Department will launch its public consultation on its proposals to implement Schedule 3 to the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.

Robbie Moore: A public consultation on the implementation proposals for Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) in new developments is expected to take place in Spring 2024.

Air Pollution: Schools

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to improve air quality around schools.

Robbie Moore: Government provides support to local authorities to deliver School Streets and funds a range of school interventions including the Walk to School Outreach Programme, which give children and their families safe active travel choices and reduce congestion around schools. To tackle air pollution around schools, local councils have powers to issue Fixed Penalty Notices for vehicle idling.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Bullying

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many allegations of bullying have been made against Ministers by staff in his Department in each of the last 12 months.

Sir Mark Spencer: No formal complaints of bullying have been raised through Defra’s dispute resolution process.

Development Aid: Nature Conservation

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to increase aid to organisations that employ game wardens.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to support international game wardens in protecting vulnerable wildlife populations.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department provides support to international game wardens to adapt to new techniques for tackling illegal wildlife activities.

Rebecca Pow: The UK is committed to combatting the illegal wildlife trade (IWT), including by investing £30 million between 2022 and 2025 to support global efforts. Our IWT Challenge Fund continues to support projects that benefit park rangers and drive innovative ways to tackle poaching. Projects have included expanding aerial surveillance to support ranger deployments in the Rungwa, Kizigo and Muhesi Game Reserves in central Tanzania, and enhanced use of innovative techniques to combat poaching and wildlife trafficking at the Ngulia rhino sanctuary in Kenya. More information on these projects and others is available here. We have also funded the training of rangers (Op CORDED) in partnership with the British Army, helping wildlife parks work together to strengthen law enforcement and share information to disrupt smuggling and poaching across Africa.

Department for Education

Regional Schools Commissioners: Finance and Staff

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the annual budget is for regional schools commissioners, per commissioner per region in each financial year since 2014-15; and how many staff were employed by each commissioner on average in each financial year since 2014-15.

Damian Hinds: The department has identified the costs as the workforce costs and the General Administration Expenditure for the Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) and their teams up to 2022, and for Regional Directors and their teams from 2022 onwards. RSCs were replaced in 2022 by Regional Directors with an expanded remit. The department's policy of retaining financial records for seven years limits access to data before the 2016/17 financial year.In 2019 the department underwent re-organisation to align its delivery work in relation to academies, free schools and school improvement, bringing together functions that were previously delivered in different parts of the department. This data for 2019/2022 is therefore not directly comparable to previous years, as the functions delivered by the RSC teams expanded.The RSC Staff programme budget, represented in the table below, was held centrally until the 2020/2021 financial year and then was split and allocated to the individual regions from 2021/2022. This was a change in where the budget sat rather than a change in staffing levels.Workforce actual spend data for Regional Schools Commissioner teams 2016/2022 Workforce Actual Spend (Millions of GBP)FY 2016/17 FY 2017-18 FY 2018/19 FY 2019/20 FY 2020/21 FY 2021/22 RSC East of England and North East London£1.60£1.62£1.15£1.07£1.20£1.99RSC East Midlands and Humber£1.90£1.48£1.39£1.10£1.33£2.58RSC Lancashire and West Yorkshire£1.85£1.91£1.45£1.33£1.39£2.86RSC North & Opportunity North East £1.57£1.29£1.16£0.74£0.93£3.36RSC North West London and South Central England£1.89£1.62£1.27£1.33£1.51£3.06RSC South East and South London£2.18£1.66£1.43£1.11£1.63£3.40RSD South West£2.20£1.98£1.39£1.59£1.81£3.55RSC West Midlands£1.90£1.91£1.15£1.20£1.67£3.18RSC Staff Programme Costs*£4.08£9.95£14.68£15.90£16.31£0.37 Full Time Equivalent staffing data for Regional Schools Commissioner teams 2016/2022 Full Time Equivalent Staff per RegionFY16/17FY17/18FY18/19FY19/20FY20/21FY21/22RSC East of England and North East London44.0141.4642.647.44141.6RSC East Midlands and Humber46.9959.934751.45349.9RSC Lancashire and West Yorkshire54.1668.7148.664.264.154.5RSC North & Opportunity North East40.4841.2832.641.937.737.3RSC North West London and South Central England49.3552.4348.464.151.643RSC South East and South London54.1958.5242.461.754.852.3RSC South West54.6655.5953.767.259.258.9RSC West Midlands58.6252.5746.757.958.656.3 In July 2022, the creation of Regions Group within the department led to the replacement of the RSC role with Regional Directors, with a broader remit for the delivery of special educational needs and disabilities support and children’s social care improvement and interventions in their regions alongside their role in relation to academies and free schools. The regional structures were also re-organised to align with geographical boundaries of English regions. This data is therefore not directly comparable to the previous years.Workforce actual spend data for Regional Director teams 2022/2024Workforce Actual Spend Data for Regional Director Teams 2022 – 2024 (Millions of GBP)Workforce ActualWorkforce Actual (at end of Feb 2024)FY 2022/23 FY 2023/24 Regional Directorate - East Midlands£2.70£3.11Regional Directorate - East of England£3.60£3.58Regional Directorate - London£4.06£3.68Regional Directorate - North East£2.47£2.09Regional Directorate - North West£4.44£4.36Regional Directorate - South East£4.04£3.93Regional Directorate - South West£4.34£4.13Regional Directorate - West Midlands£4.26£3.91Regional Directorate - Yorkshire and the Humber£4.00£3.89Full Time Equivalent staffing data for Regional Director teams 2022/2024Full Time Equivalent Staff per RegionFY22/23FY23/24 (Actual FTE at end of Feb 24)Regional Directorate - East Midlands47.754.6Regional Directorate - East of England53.065.5Regional Directorate - London55.656.3Regional Directorate - North East38.333.2Regional Directorate - North West76.280.0Regional Directorate - South East62.861.2Regional Directorate - South West66.378.5Regional Directorate - West Midlands69.770.7Regional Directorate - Yorkshire and the Humber62.771.7

Religion: Education

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to publish additional non-statutory guidance on religious education syllabus content in schools.

Damian Hinds: Religious education (RE) is an important part of a school’s curriculum and can contribute to a young person’s personal, social, and academic development. When done well, it can develop children’s knowledge of British values and traditions, help them better understand those of other countries, and refine pupils’ ability to construct well-informed, balanced, and structured arguments. This is why RE remains a compulsory subject in all state-funded schools in England for each pupil up to the age of 18.The department has no plans to publish additional non-statutory guidance on RE syllabus content in schools. The department’s policy is to allow RE curricula to be designed at a local level, whether this is through a locally agreed syllabus conference or by individual schools and academy trusts developing their own curricula. The department feels this is the most appropriate way for local demographics to be accounted for.The department does however welcome the work that the Religious Education Council has done to assist curriculum developers by publishing its National Content Standard for RE in England.

Free School Meals: Disability

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the reasons for which some disabled children cannot (a) eat and (b) access free school meals; and whether she plans to make reasonable adjustments to free school meals to help disabled children to access them.

Damian Hinds: All schools have duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards individual disabled children and young people, and they must make reasonable adjustments to prevent them being put at a substantial disadvantage. This means that a school cannot treat a pupil unfairly as a consequence of their disability.As it relates to school food, the duty to make reasonable adjustments requires schools to tailor their provision to ensure that it is accessible to disabled pupils. Furthermore, this duty is anticipatory, and so schools need to actively consider whether any reasonable adjustments are needed in order to avoid any disadvantage that may otherwise occur.The department has updated its existing guidance on free school meals to clarify schools’ duties to make reasonable adjustments for disabled children, and to support productive conversations between schools and parents about suitable food provision. The guidance can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65fdad5965ca2f00117da947/Free_school_meals.pdf.

Music: Education

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has issued guidance to independent music education hubs on the removal of additional top-up funding for pension contributions from September 2024.

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason additional funding to cover increases in employers’ pension contributions will not be provided to existing non-local authority Music Education Hubs beyond the current academic year.

Damian Hinds: As part of the ongoing Music Hubs investment programme, Arts Council England informed potential bidders on 15 June 2023 that Department for Education funding from September 2024 would be made up of the revenue and capital grants only, and that there would be no additional ring-fenced top-up funding to support teacher pensions from this point on. Indicative allocations for both revenue and capital were also published for the 2024/25 academic year as part of the investment programme information. The department understands that this will be an adjustment for music education organisations that have received top-up funding in the past and that is why the department has given both incumbent and potential new Hub Lead Organisations (HLOs) over 12 months’ notice of this intention so that this can be carefully planned for well in advance. Following the conclusion of the current Music Hubs competition, due to be announced next month, the department will work with Arts Council England to set final grant allocations for the newly competed HLOs that take over from September 2024. As part of this work, due consideration will be given to additional pension pressures due to the forthcoming increase in employer contribution to the Teacher Pension Scheme.

Schools: Air Pollution

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will update guidance for schools on mitigating poor air quality.

Damian Hinds: The department takes the health, safety and wellbeing of school users very seriously. ‘Building Bulletin 101’, published by the department, provides non-statutory guidance on ventilation, thermal comfort and indoor air quality in schools. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-bulletin-101-ventilation-for-school-buildings. Further guidance on ventilation is included in the ‘Good Estate Management for Schools’ guidance, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/good-estate-management-for-schools/health-and-safety. The department has also produced operational guidance on using CO2 monitors and managing ventilation, which is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/using-co-monitors-and-air-cleaning-units-in-education-and-care-settings. The department regularly reviews its guidance to ensure that it aligns with best practice and industry standards, to deliver high-quality school environments.

Non-teaching Staff: Minimum Wage

Dr Luke Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with (a) local authorities and (b) academy trusts on increasing the level of pay above the statutory minimum wage for non-teaching staff in schools.

Damian Hinds: The government has given schools the freedom to set pay and conditions for support staff according to their own circumstances.Local government employees, including school support staff, are covered by the National Joint Council terms and conditions, known as the Green Book. Most schools, including academies, use the local government pay scales in conjunction with the Green Book.The pay scales are set through negotiations between the Local Government Association, which represents the employer, and local government trade unions (UNISON, Unite, and the GMB), which represent the employee. Central government does not have any formal role in these matters.For the lowest pay scale, there has been an increase of 22% over the two years since April 2021, to £11.59 an hour. This is above the current national living wage of £10.42 an hour.

Schools: Admissions

Sir Desmond Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will review the School Admissions Code.

Damian Hinds: The School Admissions Code (the Code) exists to ensure that places in all state-funded schools are allocated in a fair and transparent manner. Admission authorities for all state-funded schools are required to comply with the requirements of the Code and related admissions law. The latest version of the Code came into force on 1 September 2021. The department keeps the provisions of the Code under review to ensure they continue to remain fit for purpose, however there are currently no plans to change the Code.

Teachers: Training

Sir Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding her Department has allocated to support teachers through (a) subject knowledge enhancement courses for trainees, (b) Oak National Academy Resources (i) planned and (ii) existing, (c) subject hubs, (d) support for level 3 provision and (d) bursaries and other support for continuing professional development for (A) maths and numeracy, (B) English and literacy, (C) science, (D) music, (E) history and (F) Religious Education in the last five years.

Damian Hinds: Teachers are the foundation of the education system; there are no great schools without great teachers. The quality of teaching is the single most important in-school factor for improving pupil outcomes. This is particularly important for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.The department is creating a world class teacher development system, which builds from Initial Teacher Training (ITT), through to early career support, specialisation, and onto school leadership. The funding breakdown requested over the last five years is included in the attached table. The department is providing support across a range of subjects via a network of hubs that help build teacher capability and pupil access to subjects. This focuses on support for teachers in schools and extends to sixth form provision in some schools.In addition to this funding, in 2021, as part of the government’s long term recovery plan, £184 million of new funding was allocated to enable teachers employed at state-funded organisations to access fully funded training scholarships for National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) for three years until the end of the 2023/24 academic year. This includes two specialist NPQs in Leading Literacy (NPQLL) and the NPQ in Leading Primary Mathematics (NPQLPM). In March 2024, the government announced scholarship funding for NPQs for the October 2024 cohort. This includes a guarantee that the NPQLPM will be fully funded until October 2025 to further expand teaching of mathematics mastery approaches through primary education.20499_Teacher_Funding_Breakdown_Table (xlsx, 19.8KB)

Nuisance Calls: Schools

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information his Department holds on the number of threatening calls that were made to schools in (a) Romford constituency and (b) the UK in the last 12 months.

Damian Hinds: Schools in England do not have a legal requirement to report to the department threats that are received via phone calls. However, schools are expected to have policies and procedures in place to handle these situations. The procedures may include reporting threats to local authorities and the police, this depends on the nature and severity of the threat. Schools may also choose to inform the relevant authorities as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety and security of students and staff.

Supply Teachers

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the level of (a) qualification and (b) experience of staff employed through teacher supply agencies on educational standards.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of regulating the qualifications and experience of staff made available to schools through teacher supply agencies.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the (a) adequacy of the level of experience of cover supervisors in schools and (b) potential impact of the use of cover supervisors on (i) student safety and (ii) educational outcomes.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to take steps to assess the adequacy of qualifications held by people recruited to teacher supply agencies.

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department plans to take to support schools in low income areas that may experience challenges in securing qualified supply teachers.

Damian Hinds: Supply teachers perform a valuable role and make an important contribution to the smooth running of schools by filling posts on a temporary basis and by covering teacher absences.The type of school a supply teacher works in determines the qualifications required. In local authority-maintained schools, maintained special schools and non-maintained special schools, anyone who teaches is legally required to hold qualified teacher status (QTS), subject to the following exceptions:Trainee teachers working towards QTS.Overseas trained teachers who have been in the UK less than four years.Instructors, where special qualifications and/or experience are required and teaching assistants (provided they are directed and supervised by a qualified teacher).Academies, free schools and independent schools are not subject to these requirements and have the freedom to appoint teachers with alternative qualifications.Headteachers are ultimately responsible for the educational performance in their schools and the governing body carries out certain checks on supply staff, and the department trusts them to take decisions about the right mix of qualifications, skills, and experience that they expect teachers in their schools to have.In August 2018, in conjunction with the Crown Commercial Service, the department launched the agency supply deal. A link to the guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/deal-for-schools-hiring-supply-teachers-and-agency-workers. ​The deal supports schools to get value for money when hiring agency supply teachers and other temporary school staff.The deal has established a list of preferred suppliers that schools can access, all of which:Will be transparent with schools about the rates they charge.Will agree to not charge finder’s fees for workers who have been in post for 12 weeks, when four weeks’ notice is given.Will conduct consistent, rigorous background screening checks in line with the statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’.Will be accredited by an approved accreditation body, that will audit suppliers for compliance with robust recruitment principles and the terms of the framework.The department strongly recommends that schools consider using preferred suppliers first for their agency staffing needs.Schools can learn more about the deal at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/deal-for-schools-hiring-supply-teachers-and-agency-workers. The department commissioned a research project last year into the use of supply staff in schools. This research has surveyed and interviewed supply teachers and school leaders and will improve understanding of the supply market. Publication of the report is due in the summer.

Music: Education

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the decision to create 43 Hub Lead Organisations by Arts Council England on the future of (a) Music Education Hubs and (b) the wider music provision at schools.

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support schools to offer high quality music provision for all children (a) in the curriculum and (b) through (i) local authority-run and (ii) independent Music Education Hubs.

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how the Government’s Music Hub Investment Programme will support independent Music Education Hubs to provide free music education to all children.

Damian Hinds: Music Hubs are partnerships co-ordinated by a Hub Lead Organisation (HLO) and made up of schools and academy trusts, local authorities, music and wider arts and education organisations and charities, community or youth organisations and more. Having 43 HLOs working across a wider set of music education partnerships from September 2024 should bring significant benefits to children, young people and schools, as HLOs will be able to be more strategic, building stronger partnerships with those they work with, resulting in high-quality support in every local area and to ensure there are no local ‘cold spots’ where access to provision is limited.This should also support a more consistent high-quality approach to music education for all children regardless of where they live or go to school, by offering:Improved and more equitable access to a diverse range of musical activities, opportunities, teachers, instruments and equipment.Greater consistency of provision and ability to scale up effective programmes and ways of working for children and young people and schools.Greater access to more advanced ensembles and a wider range of progression opportunities.Greater access to the cultural capital centred around urban centres, thus improving connections and reducing isolation for rural communities.More strategic leadership and governance, plus a wider range of employment opportunities and progression routes for the music education workforce.Access to greater resources, capacity and capability to use government funding to leverage further investment.An increased profile with wider musical stakeholders and a stronger connection with the music industry. Schools alone cannot provide the range of services needed for a good quality music education and Music Hubs provide many services that contribute to schools delivering high-quality music provision. Furthermore, Music Hubs will play a critical role in supporting schools who opt to implement the Model Music Curriculum published in 2021 and for schools implementing their Music Development Plans from September 2024. In time, Music Hubs will also support schools opting to use music curriculum resources from Oak National Academy, who will publish their full suite of key stage 3 and 4 resources in the summer and who recently announced a partner to produce a suite of key stages 1 and 2 resources. The government has a long-standing commitment to high-quality music education and this is reflected in the government’s National Plan for Music Education published in June 2022. This sets out the vision to enable all children and young people to learn to sing, play an instrument and create music together, and have the opportunity to progress their musical interests and talents, including professionally by 2030. The department believes that Music Hubs play a vital role in ensuring children and young people across the country can access high-quality music education and this government values the many achievements that the existing Music Hub network has made since 2012. The department has invested around £380 million of funding into Music Hubs between 2016 and 2021. As part of the National Plan for Music Education 2022, the department also announced £79 million of funding per year for the Music Hub programme, up to and including the 2024/25 academic year, to provide assurance and stability in music education. The department is also providing £25 million capital funding for musical instruments as part of the programme. The department will consider future funding for the next spending review in due course. On average, the grant funding has consistently provided around 40% of a hub’s total income and hubs have historically used this to leverage other income streams over the lifespan of the programme. This co-funding approach will continue when the new programme is in place from September 2024. As set out in the investment programme, the department also expects organisations to have evidenced, as part of their applications to become one of the new HLOs, how at least 50% of a hub’s total income will come from other sources other than the revenue grant provided by the department by the end of the funding period. There is no expectation on Music Hubs to provide free music tuition to all children. As part of the Music Hubs Investment Programme, bidders were required to submit plans detailing their strategic approach to ensure music education is inclusive of all children and young people with a range of needs, including how the Music Hub would ensure inclusion and widening opportunity will be embedded across all activity, plans and policies. This includes specific support and resources, including access to musical instruments, that will be made available for children and young people who are eligible for pupil premium, including looked-after children and/or those who are care experienced and those who have an identified special educational need or disability.

Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence: Written Questions

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 13 December to Question 5944 on Defence Equipment, when he plans to send the response letter to the Rt hon. Member for Garston and Halewood.

James Cartlidge: I responded to the right hon. Member on 16 April 2024. A copy of my letter has been placed in the Library of the House. 5944 - Defence Equipment (pdf, 39.4KB)

Armed Forces: Housing

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate he has made of the number and proportion of single living accommodation bed spaces that meet building regulation standards.

James Cartlidge: All Single Living Accommodation (SLA) bedspaces built since the 1960s - when the Building Regulations came into force - have been required to meet the standards imposed by the Regulations.The Crown has immunity and exemption from the procedural requirements of the Building Regulations in the UK, but Departmental policy mandates that all building works must comply with the minimum standards imposed by the Building Regulations. This includes the routine safety assessments, maintenance and improvement programmes applied to all SLA buildings constructed prior to the Regulations.The MOD's Building Regulations Compliance System (BRCS) is designed to broadly replicate the civilian Building Control process and builds on the safety culture within the MOD. BRCS also applies to building work overseas. The Defence Infrastructure Organisation's Building Control Compliance Authority ensures compliance with the procedures of the BRCS, the technical application of Building Regulations, and selects projects for audit.

Chinook Helicopters

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the press release entitled Capability boost for UK's global military operations as contract confirmed for new Chinook, published by his Department on 14 March 2024, whether the RAF’s Voyager aircraft are certified to aerial refuel extended-range Chinook helicopters.

James Cartlidge: The RAF Voyager will not be used to refuel Chinook ER due to the different speeds at which the two aircraft operate.

Air Force: Training

Nick Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Defence Procurement in response to the question from the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent on 25 March 2024, Official Report, column 1253, how many RAF pilots successfully completed their training in each year since 2018.

Leo Docherty: Training Year (April to March)Number of Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots successfully completed Phase 2 Military Flying Training2018-19342019-20672020-21722021-22732022-23642023-2451 Note: The figures detailed in the table above are for RAF pilots who successfully completed Phase 2 military flying training. Phase 2 flying training is defined as commencing after completion of Initial Officer Training (IOT) and up until (but not including) Front Line Operational Conversion Units (OCUs).

Home Office

Sleeping Rough: Young People

Tracey Crouch: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many 16 to 25 year olds have been arrested for rough sleeping under the Vagrancy Act.

Chris Philp: The government does not collect figures on police usage of the Vagrancy Act where this does not result in prosecution. Policing is operationally independent of the Home Office, and we cannot comment on operational decisions.

Demonstrations: Loughborough

Andrew Bridgen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) safe and (b) peaceful protests can take place outside the Envigo laboratory in Loughborough.

Chris Philp: It is a long-standing tradition in this country that people are free to gather together and to demonstrate their views, provided that they do so within the law. This government supports these rights, including the right of individuals to engage in peaceful protest. However, a balance must be struck between the rights of protesters and the rights of others to go about their lives without serious disruption or intimidation.The management of protests is an operational matter for the police. The government expects the police to act where necessary to maintain public safety. In certain circumstances, the police will have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect those who want to exercise their rights peacefully.

Shoplifting: Rural Areas

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had recent discussions with the police on taking steps to help tackle shoplifting in rural areas.

Chris Philp: he Government recognises the significant impact shoplifting has on businesses, communities, and consumers. The Crime Survey for England and Wales shows neighbourhood crime is down 48% compared to findings from the year ending March 2010.However, Police Recorded Crime figures show shoplifting offences increased by 32% in the 12 months to September 2023. Statistics also show the number of people charged with shoplifting offences has risen by 34% in the year ending September 2023, showing that police are taking action.We have recently taken significant steps to improve the police response to retail crime, including shoplifting.In October 2023, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published the Retail Crime Action Plan. Through this Plan, all forces across England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will run this through the Police National Database to aid efforts to identify prolific offenders or potentially dangerous individuals.This builds on the NPCC commitment that police forces across England and Wales will follow up all crimes where there is actionable evidence and the chance of identifying an offender, including shoplifting.October also saw the launch of Pegasus, a unique private-public partnership, which involves retailers providing data, intelligence and evidence to Opal, the national police intelligence unit on organised acquisitive crime, to develop a better strategic picture and help forces crack down on serious offenders.The Government’s plan – "Fighting retail crime: more action" was launched on 10 April, which highlights five areas of work this Government will drive forward to tackle retail crime:Introducing a standalone offence for assaults on retail workers;Additional electronic monitoring for prolific shoplifters;Working with police and businesses to roll out the latest facial recognition to catch these perpetrators;Championing good practice to design out crime; andMaking it easier for retailers to report crime.This builds on the police-led Retail Crime Action Plan.We are continuing to work closely with retail businesses, security representatives, trade associations and policing through the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG), which meets on a quarterly basis, to ensure the response to retail crime, including shoplifting, is as robust as it can be.

Department of Health and Social Care

Trastuzumab Deruxtecan

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NICE is taking steps to make Enhertu available to the National Health Service to treat incurable HER2-low secondary breast cancer.

Andrew Stephenson: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently developing guidance for the National Health Service on whether Enhertu can be recommended for routine NHS funding, based on an assessment of the costs and benefits. The NICE was unfortunately unable to recommend Enhertu as a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources in its final draft guidance published on 5 March 2024. Stakeholders have had an opportunity to appeal against the NICE’s draft recommendations, and the NICE will consider any appeals through the established process, and will publish final guidance in due course.

Trastuzumab Deruxtecan

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make a comparative assessment of the adequacy of the reasons the (a) National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has been unable and (b) Scottish Medicines Consortium has been able to recommend Enhertu for use on the NHS.

Andrew Stephenson: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes authoritative, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service in England on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS, based on an assessment of their costs and benefits. Decisions on the availability of medicines in Scotland are a matter for the devolved administration.The NICE published guidance in 2021 and 2023 recommending Enhertu, also known as trastuzumab deruxtecan, for the treatment of NHS patients with HER2-positive breast cancer through the Cancer Drugs Fund, and it is now available to eligible NHS patients in England in line with the NICE’s recommendations.The NICE is currently evaluating Enhertu for the treatment of metastatic HER2-low breast cancer, and has not yet published final guidance. Stakeholders have had an opportunity to appeal against the NICE’s draft recommendations, and the NICE will consider any appeals through the established process and publish final guidance in due course.

Mental Health Services: Stockport

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps she has taken to help reduce waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services in Stockport constituency.

Maria Caulfield: We want to ensure that children and young people get the mental health support they need, including in the Stockport constituency, and overall spending on mental health has increased by more than £4.7 billion in cash terms since 2018/19. This has enabled an expansion of child and young people's mental health services. As of January 2024, the latest data from NHS Digital shows there were 758,485 children and young people aged under 18 years old, supported through National Health Service funded mental health services with at least one contact.We have introduced two waiting-time standards for children and young people. The first is for 95% of children, up to 19 years old, with eating disorders to receive treatment within one week for urgent cases, and four weeks for routine cases. The second is for 50% of patients of all ages experiencing a first episode of psychosis to receive treatment within two weeks of referral.NHS England is developing a new waiting time measure for children and their families and carers to start to receive community-based mental health care within four weeks from referral. NHS England began publishing this new data in 2023 to improve transparency and drive local accountability.

Sodium Valproate: Compensation

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her planned timetable is for publishing a response to the Hughes Report on compensation for patients damaged by sodium valproate, published 7 February 2024.

Maria Caulfield: The Government commissioned the Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC) to produce a report on redress for those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. We are grateful to the PSC and her team for completing this report, and our sympathies remain with those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The Government is now carefully considering the PSC’s recommendations, and will respond substantively in due course.

Neurodiversity: Women

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will commission research into the impact of (a) autism and (b) ADHD on women.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR is currently funding research to address measurement bias in the assessment of the presentation of autism in women, and to develop a new psychometric tool assessing the female-dominant phenotype of autism. The NIHR previously funded a study to improve the accuracy and efficiency of autism assessment for adults which, while not specific to women, will be relevant to their experiences of receiving a diagnosis. The NIHR has also funded research into topics that impact autistic individuals differently, for example how to adapt suicide safety plans to address self-harm, suicidal ideation, and suicide behaviours in autistic adults.The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including the impact of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder on women. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality. In all disease areas, the amount of NIHR funding depends on the volume and quality of scientific activity.

Autism: Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will commission research into the reasons for which autistic women are more likely to suffer from premenstrual dysphoric disorder throughout their lives.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR is not currently funding any specific research to understand the reasons why autistic women are more likely to suffer from premenstrual dysphoric disorder, but welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.

Neurodiversity: Women

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will commission research into the impact of hormonal changes on neurodiverse women throughout their lives.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR is not currently funding any specific research into the impact of hormonal changes on neurodiverse women, but welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.

Vitamin B12

Jane Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to allow pharmacies to sell vitamin B12 injections.

Andrew Stephenson: To make a medicinal product available for sale in a pharmacy without a prescription, the product must be reclassified to pharmacy only status, also known as [P] medicines, by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).This process is triggered by an application submitted to the MHRA by a company which holds a licence for the particular product. The MHRA will consider all submitted applications, with a decision to reclassify a medicine reached following a robust evaluation of the relevant data, including evidence of the safe use and supply of the product without a prescription. The company must also demonstrate in their application that the criteria specified in relevant legislation, such as the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, have been met.In accordance with the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, regulation 62(3), Prescription-Only Medicine status will apply where: a direct or indirect danger exists to human health, even when used correctly, if used without medical supervision; there is frequently incorrect use, which could lead to direct or indirect danger to human health; further investigation of the activity or side-effects is required; or the product is normally prescribed for parenteral administration, via injection.Currently, United Kingdom law specifies that all products administered by injection must be subject to a prescription. The MHRA is therefore unable to reclassify the status of injections, including Vitamin B12, to [P] medicines, as this would not be consistent with the legislation.

Breast Cancer: Screening

Craig Tracey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of using breast density assessment software at women's first breast cancer screening appointments; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of that technology on women's awareness of their personal risk of developing breast cancer.

Andrew Stephenson: The Breast Screening Risk Adaptive Imaging for Density trial is looking into the use of supplementary imaging techniques for women, within the standard breast screening programme, who are found to have radiographically dense breast tissue. The UK National Screening Committee, which advises ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries in the United Kingdom, will review this evidence when it becomes available.

Mental Health Services: Wellingborough

Gen Kitchen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to support the recruitment and retention of mental health specialists in Wellingborough constituency.

Maria Caulfield: To deliver the NHS Long Term Plan’s mental health commitments and help reduce waiting times in the Wellingborough constituency and nationwide, our aim has been to grow the mental health workforce nationally by an additional 27,000 professionals by March 2024. We are making positive progress, delivering three quarters of this, or approximately 20,800 new professionals, by December 2023, with further growth expected to have been achieved once the full year figures for 2023/24 are available. This growth is in addition to the commitment to grow the National Health Service’s mental health workforce by 19,000 between 2016/17 and 2020/21, as set out in Stepping Forward to 2020/21: the mental health workforce plan for England, which was achieved in September 2021. At a national level, we are committed to attracting, training, and recruiting the mental health workforce of the future, as well as retaining and developing our current workforce. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan’s modelling projections set out a need to grow the overall mental health and learning disability workforce the fastest of all care settings, at 4.4% per year up to 2036/37, to help improve access to services and quality of care.

Social Services: Supported Housing

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of variations in access to appropriate social care provision to enable independent living on the (a) availability and (b) capacity of supported accommodation.

Helen Whately: Our white paper People at the Heart of Care sets out our ambition to ensure people have the choice and control to remain independent in the community. We recognise that supported housing can be the best model of care for some people, leading to better health, greater independence, and closer connection with the community.The forthcoming provisions of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023 will strengthen the data on the availability and capacity of supported accommodation. The act places a new duty on local housing authorities to review the supported housing in each district, and to forecast future need. The Government will consult on the implementation of the new duties and other supported housing reforms in due course.

HIV Infection: Research

Florence Eshalomi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding her Department plans to provide for research and development into HIV in the (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26 financial year.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department supports research and development on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). For the financial years 2024/25 and 2025/26, the Government has committed to a new £20 million research project to evaluate an expansion of HIV opt-out testing, in 47 emergency departments in England where HIV prevalence is high.However, NIHR funding awarded for HIV projects varies depending on the volume and quality of applications received and approved via open competition, which means overall NIHR funding for HIV research in the financial years 2024/25 and 2025/26 is not yet known. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including HIV.

HIV Infection: Research

Florence Eshalomi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding her Department has provided for research and development into a (a) cure and (b) vaccine for HIV in each year since 2019.

Andrew Stephenson: The Department supports research on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The remit of the NIHR is translational, clinical, and applied healthcare research. Basic research towards the development of a novel cure or vaccine for HIV is supported by other research funders such as the Medical Research Council. The NIHR has awarded over £10 million of funding since 2019 for research to evaluate new HIV treatments. The below table shoes the specific NIHR spend on HIV treatments, for each financial year since 2019:Year2019/202020/212021/222022/232023/24TotalNIHR spend£3,260,413£1,884,962£1,299,676£2,377,284£1,209,822£10,032,156

Genetics: Diseases

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients in the South West have been eligible for pre-implantation genetic testing for monogenic disorders in each of the last five years.

Andrew Stephenson: Pre-implantation Genetic Testing (PGT) is used to identify genetic anomalies in embryos created through in-vitro fertilisation. Over 600 genetic conditions can currently be tested for using this technique, as licensed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. NHS England has commissioned five centres to provide PGT to patients in England. The number of PGT cycles undertaken has increased from 223 patients in 2009 to 620 in 2019, but NHS England does not have access to data that describes the geographical profile of the people that have used the National Health Service or privately commissioned PGT services.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

High Rise Flats: Fire Prevention

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what his planned timetable is to respond to the call for evidence entitled Leaseholder-owned buildings (11m+ or 5 storeys+).

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to help support enfranchised leaseholders living in buildings taller than 11 meters with the costs of remediating non-cladding building safety defects.

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department issues guidance on the rights of residents living in buildings over 11 meters in height consisting both freeholders and leaseholders.

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an estimate of the average portfolio value of leaseholders that own more than three properties.

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an estimate of the number and proportion of leaseholders that have declared bankruptcy after not qualifying for the leaseholder protections within the Building Safety Act 2022.

Lee Rowley: The department does not routinely collect data on bankruptcy or the reasons for them; we would welcome any specific concerns being raised directly should those with an interest in this policy area wish to do so.It is important to note that there are multiple ways leaseholders can seek support in remediation. The Leasehold Advisory Service, funded by the department, provides free advice to leaseholders on legal matters.Part 5 of the Building Safety Act 2022 allows any leaseholders, including those who are leaseholders in a building subject to collective enfranchisement, to apply to the First Tier Tribunal to seek a Remediation Contribution Order from a previous owner, developer or persons associated with either of these, for funds to remediate relevant defects (including non-cladding defects) in their buildings.Leaseholders in buildings subject to collective enfranchisement can also seek to recover costs of non-cladding defects through the retrospectively extended limitation period under Section 1 of the Defective Premises Act. We have also extended the reach of civil liability to associated companies of developers and a new cause of action which allows manufacturers of construction products to be pursued.Another possible course of action would be to consider recourse to litigation under the Defective Premises Act where costs may be recovered from those responsible for historical defects on the building if construction was completed on or after 28 June 1992 and a dwelling in the building is unfit for habitation.The Government published a call for evidence on leaseholder-owned buildings, which closed on 14 November 2022. We are carefully considering the evidence, which will help inform Government policy on how best to protect the leaseholders in leaseholder-owned buildings from the impact of building safety defects. This evidence has informed the policy thinking which resulted in the inclusion of building safety measures to further strengthen Remediation Contribution Orders in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill.The department does not hold data on the average value of the portfolios of leaseholders who own more than three properties. The department issued a call for evidence on 21 March 2024 to assess the impact of the leaseholder protections where a leasehold property is owned by two or more individuals. The Call for Evidence closed on 5 April 2024.

Rented Housing: Antisocial Behaviour

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle anti-social behaviour committed by tenants living in rented properties.

Jacob Young: The Renters (Reform) Bill will strengthen landlords’ ability to repossess their property from anti-social tenants.

Private Rented Housing: Standards

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what information his Department holds on the proportion of private rental properties that do not meet the decent homes standard; and what plans he has to help improve housing quality.

Jacob Young: The most recent data on properties in the private rented sector (PRS) that failed to meet the Decent Homes Standard (DHS) are published at: English Housing Survey 2022 to 2023: headline report (data on dwelling condition is in Chapter 4).Through the Renters (Reform) Bill, we are legislating to apply the Decent Homes Standard to the PRS for the first time.

Regional Planning and Development: Finance

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make a comparative assessment between the adequacy of his Department's funding for economic development in the Canary Wharf area and (a) Chesterfield Borough Council and (b) Derbyshire County Council.

Jacob Young: Homes England is tasked with accelerating house building and regeneration in all areas of the country.Selection criteria include value for money for the taxpayer, the potential for early delivery, clear local support, and projects that support policy priorities such as brownfield development, diversification, and innovation. All investments are made following a thorough due diligence and approval process to ensure value for money for taxpayers. Fuller details of selection criteria can be found here.

Homelessness: Veterans

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has had discussions with the devolved Administrations on how they support veterans at risk of homelessness.

Felicity Buchan: DLUHC Ministers and officials engage regularly with their counterparts in the devolved administrations to discuss a range of issues, including tackling all forms of homelessness.

Treasury

Child Benefit

Sarah Olney: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff in his Department work on child benefit.

Nigel Huddleston: HMRC has a dedicated team of trained staff members available to support and assist customers with queries related to Child Benefit. The staffing numbers are regularly reviewed and adjusted based on demand throughout the year. The Department has the capability to train existing colleagues from outside the Child Benefit team as needed to address priority areas.

Audiobooks: VAT

Sir Mike Penning: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the compatibility of the (a) Government’s policy on charging VAT on audiobooks and (b) provisions of the Equality Act 2010 on people (i) with dyslexia, (ii) with sight loss or impairment and (iii) who are unable to hold books.

Nigel Huddleston: The Government is committed to supporting those with disabilities who may struggle to access physical books and therefore rely more heavily on audiobooks. In line with its statutory obligations under the Equality Act, the Government carefully considers the impact of VAT policy on those with disabilitiesHowever, there is never any guarantee that any VAT cut is passed onto consumers. It is therefore not clear that cutting the VAT on audiobooks would benefit consumers, including those with disabilities.  The government does not currently have any plans to change the VAT treatment of audiobooks.

Department for Transport

Stockport Station

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of increasing funding for Stockport railway station on the local economy.

Huw Merriman: The Government believes that Stockport is best placed to decide on and take forward transport schemes that will most benefit their local areas. I would therefore encourage the local stakeholders in the area to work together to bring forward a bid(s) to be considered for development under the various sources of funding available.

Bus Services: Public Service Obligations

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 20th July 2023 to Question 194351 on Bus Services: Public Service Obligations, when his Department plans to issue new guidance on socially and economically necessary bus services.

Guy Opperman: The Department remains committed to publishing this guidance within this Parliament.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

District Heating: Leasehold

Justin Madders: What estimate her Department has made of the cost to leaseholders of complying with the proposed heat network technical standards requirements.

Amanda Solloway: All heat network regulation is designed to be proportionate, to deliver better quality of service, and to reduce costs in the longer term. The Department continues work on introducing effective technical standards for heat networks while protecting consumers from excessive costs.

Climate Change: Carbon Emissions

David Simmonds: What progress she has made on reaching the UK’s 2050 net zero target.

Claire Coutinho: Britain is the first major economy to halve emissions, whilst growing the economy by 80%. We have more ambitious targets for 2030 than the EU, with the UK aiming for a 68% reduction in emissions to their 55%. We have over-achieved on all carbon budgets to date, and remain on track for the next.

Great British Insulation Scheme

Lloyd Russell-Moyle: How many and what proportion of households have applied to the Great British Insulation Scheme.

Amanda Solloway: The Department does not hold all of the data on who has applied to the Great British Insulation Scheme (GBIS) through the different avenues. There have been over 120,000 referrals through the GBIS referral service up to March 2024.However, the scheme is only a third of the way through, suppliers will have required time to adapt to changes and to accommodate new obligations imposed on them, and we expect the rate of installations to increase over coming months.GBIS is one of a number of schemes improving the energy efficiency of homes across Great Britain. Its sister scheme ECO has installed 3.8m measures in 2.5m homes since 2013.

Energy Supply: Self-sufficiency

Andrew Rosindell: What steps she is taking to promote energy self-sufficiency in the UK.

Justin Tomlinson: We are investing in homegrown renewable energy and recently announced the biggest expansion of nuclear power for 70 years. We are also ensuring sustained oil & gas production through annual licencing rounds under the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill.

National Grid

Sarah Green: What steps she is taking to increase grid capacity.

Justin Tomlinson: Through the Transmission Acceleration Action Plan, we are halving the construction time of new transmission infrastructure from 14 years to 7, delivering the grid capacity needed for a decarbonised energy system and meet a doubling of electricity demand by 2050.

Offshore Industry: Employment

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2024 to Question 16114 on Offshore Industry: Employment, what steps she has taken to verify the methodology behind the Offshore Energies UK’s Workforce Insight reports.

Justin Tomlinson: The workforce estimates developed by Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) come from statistics provided by the data analysis company Experian, who in turn use Government jobs data and track expenditure as it flows through the economy. These figures are produced independently of Government but OEUK has previously shared some underlying data with the Department. Experian has said that its calculation is standard and widely used.

Department for Business and Trade

Export Controls

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to Table 2.4 of the UK strategic export controls annual report 2022, published on 19 July 2023, HC1681, what the (a) destination country and (b) type of goods to be exported were for each Standard Individual Export Licence and Standard Individual Trade Control Licence revoked under Criterion 1.

Alan Mak: As part of our commitment to transparency, HM Government publishes data on export licensing decisions on a quarterly basis in the Official Statistics, including data on outcome, end user destination, overall value, type (e.g. military, other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Digital Technology: Disadvantaged

Sir Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what the annual budget is of the inter-ministerial group on tackling digital exclusion.

Sir Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when the last meeting was of the inter-ministerial group on tackling digital exclusion; and who was in attendance.

Saqib Bhatti: The Government has been clear that ensuring that no one is left behind in the digital age is a key priority and continues to take steps to offer the support needed.Digital inclusion is a cross-cutting issue that spans social engagement, education, employment, access to services and many more elements of everyday life. Responsibility for relevant policies, activities and budgets sit across government. For example, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is exploring options for funding research to improve the Government’s evidence base on digital exclusion.The Government established a cross-Whitehall ministerial group in response to a recommendation from the House of Lords Communication and Digital Committee’s report on ‘Digital Exclusion’. The ministerial group aims to drive progress and accountability on digital inclusion priorities across Government.The most recent ministerial group meeting took place in March 2024, chaired by the Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy. The Department for Culture, Media & Sport, Cabinet Office, Department for Work and Pensions, and His Majesty's Treasury were also in attendance.

Telecommunications: Infrastructure

Sir Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to protect the UK's network infrastructure, in the context of the adequacy of whereabouts compliance measures.

Julia Lopez: Openreach has commercial contracts with broadband contractors who access its ducts and poles. These contracts include detailed requirements on how Openreach should be notified of where and when companies will be building fibre. It is ultimately a commercial decision for Openreach to decide how it enforces these contracts. DSIT has engaged with Ofcom, Openreach, and the Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator (OTA) to understand the implications of whereabouts compliance for telecoms network resilience. Improving compliance may help to attribute the cause of accidental damage to fibre infrastructure but would not completely prevent accidental damage or stop those intending to cause malicious damage. DSIT has been informed by Openreach and the OTA that they have worked with communication providers to agree a new approach to improving whereabouts compliance. DSIT is content that no further action is required at this time but will continue to work with Ofcom to monitor the situation in case risks to security and resilience arise in future.